2i8 FERNS. 



The very names are foreign to them ; the cultivation of Ferns has 

 become a necessity, because it is the fashion, and the possessors have 

 great pride in exhibiting the beauties contained in their conservatories, 

 but really many of them know little of the nature of the lovely plants 

 on which they bestow so much money and attention. They are costly 

 and are beautiful to the eye, that is all. 



" What constitutes a fern and how is it to be distinguished from 

 any other plant," is a question that is frequently asked. One young lady 

 brought me a leaf of one of our earliest forest-plants — Osmorrhiza brevi- 

 stylis, the herb known as Wood Parsley, or by the pretty name of Sweet 

 Cicely. She thought it was a beautiful fern, and seemed surprised when 

 I told her she had mistaken the pretty bright green divided leaf of an 

 Umbelliferous plant for the frond of a fern. While another brought a 

 leaf of the homely Yarrow, A c/uV/ecr millefolmm., and was mortified because 

 I rejected it. She had gone through a course of Botany at school, she 

 said, and ought to know a Fern when she saw it. I thought 

 so too. The fact was that my friend had learned the names 

 of the principal organs of a flower, and could tell its constituent parts 

 by rote, but that was all that she knew or cared to know, and laughed 

 at me for my love of " Weeds," as she called all wild flowers. My 

 little boy had a higher appreciation of the beautiful, and indignantly 

 resented the word " Weeds," as applied to the handful of flowers that 

 he had gathered for mamma, looking at the lady with wide-opened eyes, 

 he said " Not weeds, God's beautiful flowers." But I am digressing 

 and must return to the description of the distinguishing parts of a Fern. 

 The roots and fibrils of many Ferns are clothed with fine brown hairs, 

 .as in those of the Adiantums or Maiden-hairs, and of some of the 

 Polypodies. These may be easily examined by the use of a magnifying 

 glass. This fine clothing of the roots may be as a defence from the 

 frosts of Winter, or a means of conveying nourishment through these 

 delicate organs of the plant. 



By cutting through the rhizome or horizontal root stock of Onoclea 

 sensibilis, oui Oak -leaved Fern, a succession of stems and fronds yet 

 undeveloped may plainly be seen. This ugly hard rugged rhizome is a 

 wonderful repository of beauty and order of vegetable organisms, kept as 

 in a safely locked store-house, to be produced in due season. 



The stipe or stem of a fern is the supporting column. 'J'he rachis, 

 the portion of the stipe which bears the leafage, branching off on either 

 side, forming the mid-ribs and veinings of the leaves or pinnae which 

 are often again divided and subdivided into leaflets or pinnules. 



The rachis may be considered as the supporting frame work or 

 skeleton of the frond which holds together and supports all its parts. 



